The present invention relates to a ribbon cassette attached to a printer, a ribbon protector attached to a ribbon cassette, and a printer to which a ribbon protector is attached.
A conventional printer, especially a wire dot printer, has a carriage on which an ink ribbon cassette having an ink ribbon is mounted. The carriage is moved relative to print paper so that wires on a printhead strike the ink ribbon against the print paper to print on the print paper. In order to prevent the print paper from being smeared by the ink ribbon, a ribbon protector is provided.
The ribbon protector is attached to a tip portion of the ink ribbon cassette and has a hole that opposes the tips of the wires. The ink ribbon is isolated from the print paper by the ribbon protector except for an area facing the hole.
A POS printer, a special printer, has a paper-transporting path that runs through a gap between a platen and a printhead mounted on a carriage. The print paper advances into the gap. The print paper is then transported under the printhead by the transporting rollers, and finally discharged from the printer. The top of the printer is covered with a lid having an opening formed therein. The opening is formed in the top portion of the printer so that the print paper is discharged through the opening.
The POS printer is also used to print on paper called xe2x80x9ccheck.xe2x80x9d When printing is performed on the xe2x80x9ccheck,xe2x80x9d the paper is inserted into the printer from above the printer. The paper passes through the gap between the platen and the printhead to a predetermined position where printing is actually initiated.
With the aforementioned conventional printer, when the print paper is inserted from above the printer, the leading end of the print paper can often abut the upper portion of the printhead so that the print paper cannot go in any further. The opening provided in an area immediately over the print engine is somewhat wide open to facilitate easy discharge of the printed paper. Thus, when the print paper is inserted through the wide opening, it is difficult to guide the print paper into a narrow part. In order to solve this drawback, a guide member may be added to make the opening narrow but providing such additional members makes the construction complex.
The present invention was made in view of the aforementioned conventional ribbon cartridge.
An object of the invention is to provide a ribbon cartridge in which when print paper is inserted through a wide opening formed in the top of a printer, the print paper is smoothly guided to a printing section defined in front of the ribbon cartridge.
A ribbon protector is attached to a ribbon cartridge to prevent an ink ribbon from being smeared. The ribbon protector includes a mounting portion, a protecting portion, and a first projecting portion. The ribbon protector is mounted to the ribbon cartridge by means of the mounting portion. The protecting section opposes an ink ribbon such that the ink ribbon is between the protecting section and the ribbon cartridge when the mounting portion has been mounted to the ribbon cartridge. The first projecting portion projects from the protecting section to incline toward the ribbon cartridge.
The mounting portion has a first base portion continuous to the protector and the first projecting portion has a second base portion continuous to the protecting section. The first base portion is thinner than other portions of the mounting portion and the second base portion is thicker than other portions of the first projecting portion.
The ribbon protector includes a second projecting portion that projects from the protecting section to incline toward the ribbon cartridge. The first projecting portion inclines more than the second projecting portion.
The first projecting portion flexes when a force is exerted on the first projecting portion in a direction toward the ribbon cartridge.
The ribbon protector may further include an elongated hole having a first part and a second part, the first part being formed in the first protecting portion and a second part being formed in the first projecting portion.
The first projecting portion has a projection provided thereto, the projection directly facing the ribbon carriage.
The first projecting portion is formed of a metal material.
A ribbon cartridge has a ribbon protector attached thereto. The ribbon protector includes a mounting portion, a protecting portion, and a first projecting portion. The ribbon protector is mounted to the ribbon cartridge by means of the mounting portion. The protecting section opposes an ink ribbon such that the ink ribbon is between the protecting section and the ribbon cartridge when the mounting portion has been mounted to the ribbon cartridge. The first projecting portion projects from the protecting section to incline toward the ribbon cartridge.
The first projecting portion has a length that is enough to extend over at least a front support of the ribbon cartridge.
The projecting portion has a length that is enough to cover substantially half a length of a side support of the ribbon cartridge.
A printer incorporates a ribbon cartridge having a ribbon protector mounted thereto so that a printhead performs printing on print paper through an ink ribbon supplied from the ribbon cartridge. The print paper is inserted from outside. The ribbon protector includes a mounting portion, a protecting section, and a projecting portion. The mounting portion is mounted to the ribbon cartridge. The protecting section opposes the print paper and the ink ribbon such that the ink ribbon is between the protecting section and the ribbon cartridge. The projecting portion projects from the protecting section to incline toward the ribbon cartridge.
The projecting portion has a length that is enough to extend over at least a front support of the ribbon cartridge.
The printer has a longitudinally extending opening through which the print paper is inserted from outside. The projecting portion extends under the opening, traversing the opening in a direction substantially perpendicular to the longitudinal direction. The print paper is guided by the projecting portion to pass in front of the protecting section.